With things at the lab finally taken care of and all the damage from Vinyl's crying repaired, Albert was pleased to be able to go home for the day. At first, he considered keeping Vinyl at the lab - if only to keep people from giving him strange looks on the way home - but this thought proved in vain. The moment he approached the door to outside, Vinyl shouted, "BAFAI!" and dive bombed his head, latching on with all four legs and giggling. He had spent nearly ten minutes attempting to dislodge her, only to discover the same glow that had levitated the bottle surrounding her legs and his head, locking her in place. Forced to roll his eyes in resignation, he headed out the door with a unicorn on his head.
Halfway home, this became less of a trial for him, as it was somewhat cool and breezy, and Vinyl kept his head from getting chilled. The fact that she also hummed a rather catchy tune the whole way back to his apartment helped make the trip more enjoyable.
Opening his front door, he was rather unsurprised when Vinyl leapt off his head and proceeded to race around the small residence. It was only one bedroom, one bathroom, and a kitchen unit, but it was all Wily really needed. He could only groan in frustration, however, when she found the switch hidden inside the lamp that caused the secret panels to slide up, revealing all his plans for world domination.
Vinyl, for her part, found the sketches, diagrams, pages of computer code, and specifications of planetary defenses enthralling. At least, Wily assumed that was why she stared at them with her glasses on the tip of her muzzle, eyes shining and a quiet 'coo' coming from her mouth as she examined each new detail. After examining them all, Vinyl raced up to Wily, waving her forelegs at him. "Ep! Ep!" she called out eagerly.
Wily paused as he thought about everything that he'd seen of Vinyl so far, trying to translate baby talk to something he could understand. "You want to help me take over the world?" he guessed.
Vinyl cheered, bouncing up and down in eagerness.
Wily couldn't help but laugh at that. "Not yet, little one," he chided, patting her mane. "As cute as you are and as dangerous as you've proven to be, I don't know enough to weaponize it yet. Sound weapons just aren't that well developed, and no one's ever managed to weaponize cuteness." Heading to the kitchen, he glanced in the fridge...and found something he had forgotten. "Damn," he grumbled under his breath. "Have to make a grocery run. ...then again, I'd need to for baby pony food." He glanced over at Vinyl. "At least, I assume you're a baby..."
"Damn!" Vinyl agreed happily.
Wily cackled a bit. "Yup. Definitely a baby." Closing the fridge, he headed for the door. "Stay here," he instructed Vinyl. "I'll be back in 10...15 minutes tops. Entertain yourself till then." Managing to get out the door without a unicorn on his head, he headed for the store.
Meanwhile, Vinyl pressed the lamp switch to reveal the Secret Panels of Awesome, as she'd come to think of them. She glanced around at them for a time. She wanted to help make the Awesome real, but she was told she couldn't. She would prove she could.
Her eyes fell on the portable stereo, which was a little smaller than she was. She turned the meaning of 'weaponize' over and over in her head.
Her horn lit up with a 'Ding!' as she had an idea, one that made her gasp happily.
Wily was grumbling as he returned to the apartment, the full 15 minutes later. While the store was only two minutes away, he'd faced a bit of difficulty when he tried to ask for advice on what to buy for Vinyl. "How difficult is it to answer if a certain foodstuff is good for baby tiny ponies?" he growled angrily. "It's not the strangest question I've ever asked them about food! They know how particular about that I am! I'm a classically trained chef as well as roboticist!" He paused as he set the groceries down to unlock his door. "...maybe it was because I asked about a baby unicorn? But that's hardly the strangest thing to have happen in this day and age." Picking the groceries back up, he nudged the door all the way open with his foot.
Before he entered the doorway, a bright blue cylinder surrounded by oscillating yellow rings, tapering to a point, shot out the door, nearly clipping his lab coat.
BZZZOWN-KRUNCH!
As the sound of the beam's passage - and something hitting a wall - echoed in his ears, he turned to follow the beam. It shot out from the balcony of the apartment complex and towards the street. He could tell it wasn't any of the weapon types he was familiar with by the shape. Hmm...not plasma, not laser, not particle... he mulled in his mind.
The beam impacted the top of a lamppost...and passed right through it, the part it passed through seeming to dissolve in the wake of the blast, the blast itself continuing onward before it dissipated 300 yards away from the apartment.
He stared at the topless lamppost for a time, his jaw hanging. He'd seen a few theoretical stipulations like this, but no one had figured out how to actually make such a thing work. "That was...a sonic disruption blast..." he gasped.
"Owchie..." Vinyl whimpered from inside, sniffling.
Putting the blast from his mind, Wily rushed into the apartment and set the groceries down. He found Vinyl embedded in the wall directly opposite the door. Clutched in her forelegs was a gun made of glowing blue circuitry and black casing. On its top was a energy bar that was slowly filling up. There was still smoke coming off the barrel, which faded as - exactly eleven seconds after the shot fired - the gun went "Ding!" The bar on top was full, indicating it was ready to fire again. On the side was a dial that went from one to eleven. It was currently set to eleven.
Wily was able to take this all in with a single glance, but not process it immediately. Instead, he gently pulled Vinyl from the wall and grabbed the first aid kit. From what he could see, her only injuries were a few scrapes on her sides and a minor laceration of one leg. Some antibiotic cream and bandages later, and they were all covered up. Wily even went so far as to kiss the bandage over the cut. "All better?" he asked her.
Vinyl looked up at him with a huge smile. She then held up the gun for him to examine.
He looked it over for a time, studying its workings. "A functional sonic disruptor...these are only theoretical. You certainly know your way around sound...but where'd you get the parts?" He glanced around the room. "...where's my stereo?"
Vinyl whistled innocently.
Wily raised an eyebrow. "You turned my stereo into a functional sonic disruptor...in 15 minutes?" Holding it up, he pointed it out the door, aiming it at nothing, and fired.
BZZZOWNN!
The blast shot out, traveling about 150 yards before dissipating. "...and I was right. It's set up so that the highly focused sonic vibrations dissolve the molecular bonds of whatever it encounters, using that energy to refocus the beam! It doesn't get much from passing through gases, but liquids or solids..."
Eleven seconds after the gun fired, it "Ding!"ed again, ready to fire.
"And it can fire a blast every eleven seconds?" Wily asked in shock, examining the gun again. "And it isn't degrading from use!" He closed the door to keep himself from being tempted to keep firing the amazing weapon. "This is incredible!"
"Ep?" Vinyl asked hopefully.
Wily couldn't help but cackle wickedly. "Alright! If you can do things like this now, there's no telling what you'll make when you're older! You can help me take over the world!"
"Yay!" Vinyl cheered happily, leaping up to wrap her forelegs around Wily's neck, kissing his cheek. She looked up into his eyes adoringly, her own eyes shining over her glasses, still somewhat askew from blasting herself across the room. "Wub oo Da!"
It didn't take Wily long to translate that bit of baby talk, though it caught him off guard. After a time, he smiled down at her. If it kept her happy and making these crazy weapons for him, why not say it? "Wub you too, Vinyl," he replied sappily.
Vinyl squealed happily as she buried her face in his neck.
Wily felt a brief tightness in his chest at the feeling of her nuzzling him, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.